I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Micah 5:2
2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."
(NKJ)
We have so many different memories when we think of our birthplace on Christmas.
I remember wonderful times, of a warm home with the smell of Christmas foods and dreams of how Christmas day would be with my family and friends.
I remember the Christmas programs at the church and the apples, oranges, nuts and candy canes and reciting our parts before the church.
We where not wealthy by a long shot but we didn’t know that because of my mother and father. They did everything they knew how to make Christmas as special as possible and you know what, I look back over my life and I thank God for them.
Years later when I would spend Christmas on a secret mission in Japan or spend Christmas in Vietnam or even spend Christmas half way across the country, I would always wish to be home for Christmas.
No matter where I would find myself, I would make sure I found a way to call home and let my mother know how much I missed her and thank her for all she had done for me. Daddy was gone by now but he would always hold a special place in my heart at Christmas also.
I know that everyone didn’t have this type of Christmas. But even the ones, who had a hard time during this season, hold on to the memories of their best Christmas’s.
I talked to a friend who told me about a Christmas when they had nothing. They lived up in the mountains in a small town and she remembers how this Christmas was shaping up to be like so many others when they would only receive a piece of candy or even nothing at all. She remembered her best Christmas as the one that on Christmas Eve they received word to come to the western union office. Her aunt had remembered them and had sent them some money for Christmas. She said it was the greatest Christmas ever because they didn’t even have food to eat and now there would be food and maybe even a present.
God has special people and He has special places. You may come from a big city or you may be from the smallest little ole town back in the hills but it is home.
There are people who right now who are planning how they can make it home for Christmas.
Some will take a plane, or ride a bus and others will drive thousands of miles night and day just to be home for Christmas.
Home may be a spilt level or it may be a little house on the backside of town but they want to come home.
There are some people in this church right now, if that far away son or daughter, sister or brother would walk through that door, you would bust into a fit of joy.
This truly is a special time of year and we must never allow the enemy to take that away from us.
The only way the enemy can do that is if we allow ourselves to forget the reason for the season.
When we don’t have Jesus, we don’t have Christmas. People who don’t have Jesus are the ones without joy.
They can be found always complaining about this time of year is too commercial.
They are the ones saying they will be glad when it’s over.
Most of them really love Christmas but for what ever reason they have allowed past hurts and disappointments to take Christ out of Christmas for them. They have an inner bitterness that they want let go of.
When you take Christ out of Christmas you lose your joy and happiness.
TEXT:
There was excitement about the birth of Christ even before He was ever born.
Years before the birth of Jesus the Prophet Micah was forewarned by God that in the town of Bethlehem would come forth a ruler.
Bethlehem would be the place where Jesus would make His entry into this world.
The savior of not only Israel but the Savior of the world was to be born in Bethlehem.
But I must say why Bethlehem? Why not in the great city of Jerusalem?
Let’s take a closer look at the town of Bethlehem.
Bethlehem means House of Bread.
It was a special place where they worked the fertile soil and produced food and sustenance for the people. It was a humble small town of hard working people.
It was not the holy city – it was not Jerusalem – it was not the great capital center of worship.
It was a modest village that was dear to the heart of the Jews and it was a city that was highly favored by God.
It was very much like your town home town. Some people are ashamed of where they come from. I have known people who did not want to let anyone know they came from a little small town.
Zechariah 4:10
10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin,
(NLT)
Church stops thinking of yourselves as small because you are Great in the eyes of the Lord.
Stop thinking of your home town as a small town but look at it through the eyes of the Lord.
Look at it as a place where the Lord can begin a good work. A good work in this town and a good work in you.
WHAT WAS SPECIAL ABOUT THE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM?
In Bethlehem was to be found the monument to Rachel. It was here that the beloved wife of Jacob died and was buried.
This was the city of Ruth, who lived here with her husband Boaz.
Ruth was the great-grandmother of Bethlehem’s most distinguished son, David.
It was here that David was born and thus is called the “City of David.”
The prophet Micah points to this modest city of Bethlehem, least among the princes of Judah, as place where the future hope of Israel would come.
I don’t know if even the prophet had full understanding of the revelation that the Lord had given him. There are times when the Lord will give us a vision of things to come, that it takes years for us to come to the full understanding of them.
Israel was in a bad situation but God was about to birth something
Like the girl I mentioned earlier who thought she was going to have a bad Christmas. God works in the mist of bad situations to bring about great things.
There are times when we must look to the ordinary to find the extraordinary.
Where you least expect to see the power of God demonstrated, it is there you may find God working out His purpose through ordinary flesh and blood.
Bethlehem was small but hope was to reside in Bethlehem.
So on Christmas we are reminded that the greatness of God is seen in the wonder of both the ordinary and the small.
The miracle of God is that He can make much of nothing and something of almost anything.
A little town becomes the focus of the world’s last best hope.
A little baby comes to oppose the forces of evil.
The test of God’s power is not in His capacity to move mountains but it is God’s power to make much of little.
That is what He did with the creation of the world and that is what He does with Christmas and that is what He does with us.
Christmas belongs to those who recognize not the sense of the holidays but the real presence of God in our lives.
Emmanuel means “God with us”.
God does not abandon that which He makes; he becomes one with us that we may become one with Him.
Its time for you to come home for Christmas. Its time for you to come home to the Lord. The maker ruler and creator of your life.
Jesus is calling, tenderly calling, come home – come home.
